A. Field of Invention
The invention relates to the field of devices which may be used to mechanically turn the pages of a musical composition or other work. More particularly, in the most preferred embodiment, the invention is a page turner for musical compositions that utilizes disks indexed to pages of the musical composition so that the pages of the composition may be turned by pressing a remote pedal with one's foot, the pedal causing a cable to turn, the turning of the cable causing a disk to rotate, and rotation of a disk causing the next page in sequence in the musical composition to turn.
B. Prior Art
In the prior art, there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to provide a reliable and quiet page turner that would be accepted in the market.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,093 issued on May 23, 1972 discloses a page turner that uses spring clips secured to pages to be turned, and an electric motor turning a pulley which drives an endless cord to engage the clips and turn the pages. A remote foot switch is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,773 issued on May 15, 1973 in the name of Aldo I. Bombardi discloses a page turner that uses vertically disposed wire rods and plastic strips to be placed between pages to be turned. The rods are moved and pages turned by a slidable rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,196 issued on Aug. 9, 1977 in the names of James P. Claypool and Gerrit Hoogenraad discloses a page turner. The page turner uses a plate with parallel slots for pages of a book to be inserted through and an operable mechanism for selectively moving the slide plate to turn a page. A remote foot switch is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,468 issued on Apr. 18, 1978 in the name of Frank M. Butler discloses a page turner. The page turner has an arm that is installed below the page of a book. A biased shaft is secured to the arm to move the arm and cause a page to turn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,334 issued on Jul. 10, 1979 in the name of Gordon Willis discloses a page turner that accommodates forward and backward page turning by using a roller that displaces a page of a book under the roller.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,659 issued on Jan. 3, 1984 in the name of Alastair K. Cassels-Brown discloses a page turning device that uses rotating drums, filament wound on the drums, and a biasing mechanism to keep the drums and filaments tensioned and ready to turn pages. The filaments are attached to pages to be turned, and when the filaments are drawn inward by the turning drum, they in turn pull upon the pages to which they are attached, causing them to turn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,675 issued on Feb. 24, 1987 in the names of John G. Berger and David J. Emmons discloses a page turner for books. The page turner includes a support for the book, a power driven disk, a finger that protrudes from the disk to pages of the book, and a power drive. A page curler device is used to curl pages of the book in order for the finger to pull and turn the page at the curl.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,712 issued on Jan. 19, 1988 in the names of Jean-Claude A. Moreau and Francois Chaudiere discloses a page turner which is motor controlled and uses a suction tube to lift a page to be turned, and a double acting pusher that turns the pages. A remote actuator is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,266 issued on Oct. 1, 1992 in the name of Robert C. Burster discloses a page turner that uses spring-actuated control plates associated with wire page turner elements that effect page turning when controlled by a sequential release mechanism. The device is actuated by a user's foot.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,248 issued on Apr. 20, 1993 in the names of Douglas J. Carr and Lincoln Lucero discloses a battery operated page turner that accommodated forward and backward page turning by use of tabs on an endless belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,900 issued Aug. 10, 1993 in the name of Stephen P. Fitzgerald discloses a music page turner that has a frame and a number of page turner assemblies that each include a disk rotatable on an axle. The disks each have a notch and an arm. The notch in a disk is used to prevent movement of the disk until it is time for the page associated with that disk to be turned. Each arm is attached to a page of music, and a page of music is turned by turning the disk and arm assembly associated with that page of music.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,772 issued Dec. 20, 1994 in the name of Elie Shemoul discloses a page turner intended to be used in conjunction with a music stand. The page turner uses a set of springs of predetermined lengths, each spring being connected to a transparency. In turn, each transparency is placed behind a page of music, and when the spring corresponding to a transparency is moved, the page of music corresponding to the transparency is moved. This is a complicated mechanism that makes the composition thick and unwieldy by inserting transparencies into it, and it introduces the noise of turning transparency pages in addition to pages of music.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,943 issued Feb. 27, 1996 in the name of Masaaki Horikawa discloses a page turner that holds a book open and mechanically selects and turns a page of the book. Electrical and computer control apparatus are used to operate the page turner.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 269,683 issued Jul. 12, 1983 in the name of Bruce E. Barbour discloses an electric sheet music page turner having a pair of extending arms, each arm having affixed to it what appears to be a clip for attaching to a page of paper.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 275,402 issued Sep. 4, 1984 in the name of Gerald T. O'Brien discloses a music book page turner that has five (5) wire arms that appear adapted to be placed between pages of a music book in order to turn them.
The prior art fails to address many problems which are solved by the invention, including providing a nearly silent page turner, providing a page turner that can repeatedly turn only a single page that is the next page in sequence, and providing a page turner that can be reliably actuated by a musician's foot, leaving his hands free to manipulate his instrument.